Friday, July 27, 2012

Delaware County

Delaware
County is located in the south-eastern corner of the state, in the Piedmont
Province. The Delaware River is the main
drainage system which flows into the Delaware Bay. This location along the bay positioned it for
development at a very early stage in the history of our Commonwealth. This
relatively small county (184 sq. miles) is packed with 142 recorded
archaeological sites in the Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey (PASS)
files. The majority of recorded sites, 78%, are reported components of the
historic period. This is not to say that
Native peoples didn’t occupy this region of the state, but the archaeological
evidence has been more difficult to recover due, in part, to its early colonial
development. The second factor to
consider in the preservation of these sites is the Delaware River and the
coastal floodplain environment. Of the
forty-three sites recorded with a pre-historic component, forty are located in
riverine settings consisting of floodplains, terraces, stream benches or rises.

One of the earliest historic accounts of interaction with
Native peoples comes with the settlement of New Sweden, Nya Sverige in1638. Peter Minuit negotiated a treaty with five
Lenape chiefs for lands along the Delaware River for which Minuit claimed
control of approximately sixty-seven miles for Sweden. This exchange was but
the first of many to follow and the beginning of European colonization in
Pennsylvania. In 1643 Johan Printz was appointed Governor with the goals of
expanding the colony and securing Swedish Lutheran as the official religion of
the colony and increasing trade with the Lenape or Delaware Indians. Governor Printz’s mansion, Printzhof (36De3) was
built on Tinicum Island at Essendon, Pennsylvania. It is described as a fortified state house
and trading-post in use during the fur trade with the Lenape Indians. The Dutch, who had surveyed the Delaware River
prior to the Swedes establishing a colony, gained control of the territory
along the River in 1655 only to later surrender it to England in 1664.

cannon shot from Printzhof (36De3)

Excavations at the site of Printzhof in 1937 by Donald
Cadzow of the Pennsylvania Historical Commission and the Works Progress
Administration (WPA) produced pipe stems, iron cannon balls, ceramics, glass
and yellow bricks. These artifacts and the foundations of structures erected at
Printzhof were reflective of the daily lives of a people who had traveled to a
virtually unkown “new world” determined to strengthen their homeland of Sweden.

Slip decorated redware sherds from Printzhof

Cadzow’s excavation was prompted by the desire to mark this
historic site and the 300th Anniversary of the settling of New
Sweden. Subsequent archaeology conducted
in the 1970’s by Dr. Marshall Becker revealed that Cadzow and crew had reset
all of the foundation stones, but not in their original order. Photo
documentation taken in 1937 aided archaeologists in interpreting the foundation
and led Becker to conclude that Cadzow had located the original foundation of
Printzhof. This house was destroyed by an accidental fire in 1645 and a second larger
structure was reportedly built. Becker
found foundation walls he interpreted as the foundations from both structures.

Smoking pipes from Printzhof, white ball clay European examples on left, native made pipe on right

The method of construction at Printzhof was recorded in
historic documents and accounts for the quantity of yellow brick recovered at
the site. Records indicate that 6,000 brick were sent on the “Fama” in 1644,
the largest known shipment of this product to New Sweden. Traditional Swedish
homes generally contained fireplaces and these brick may have been used in
construction of a chimney. Additionally
twenty-four pieces of glass were in this shipment and may have been used in
construction but this has not been verified according to Becker. Swedish house structures typically had a
entry hall in the center with timber construction, similar to that found in the
oldest section of nearby Morton Homestead.

yellow brick from Printzhof

Morton Homestead (36De5) was home to Morton Mortenson who remained in the area after the Dutch
defeated Sweden in 1655.The
reconstruction of this structure in 1938 coincided with the 300th
Anniversary, but historians have questioned the accuracy of the
reconstruction.The tight fitting log
construction of Swedish homes described in 1679 by Jasper Danckaerts, a member of
the Labadist religious sect exploring the area for a new settlement, is the
best account available.Dackaerts describes
a log house as follows ..." being nothing else than entire trees, split
though the middle, or squared out of the rough, and placed in the form of a
square, upon each other, as high as they wish to have the house; the ends of
these timbers are let into each other, about a foot from the ends, half of one
into half of the other. The whole structure is thus made, without a nail or a
spike.” This tight construction led to a
warm, secure structure.Inaccuracies of
the reconstruction of Morton Homestead aside, the earliest foundation to the
heritage of Delaware County can be directly attributed to the influence of Swedes,
Finns and Dutch settlers in the 1600’s.

Researchers continue to examine historical documents and the archaeological record to
better understand the colonization of New Sweden and attempts by Sweden for
expansion. Additional research in the future may reveal more about these early
colonists and their impact on colonization in Pennsylvania.

Reenactors at Brandywine Battlefield

Moving
forward about a little over a hundred years we travel to Brandywine Battlefield
(36De84), the site of a battle between American and
British troops on September 11, 1777. British
forces commanded by General William Howe, with General Charles Cornwallis, led
approximately 8,500 troops to the scene to launch a surprise attack on General
George Washington’s troops. Hessian
troops estimated at just over 7,000 marched across and up Brandywine Creek
while Howe marched to the north attacking near present day Longwood Gardens.
Washington had positioned troops on the Brandywine to defend Philadelphia. When the American troops, almost 15,000 men,
were attacked on both sides by British forces, the troops were defeated and
casualties numbered more than 1,000 men for Washington’s troops and slightly
less for the British. British troops
marched into Philadelphia on September 23, 1777.

Gilpin House

Excavations
conducted at Brandywine Battlefield have produced little archaeological
evidence of the battle. The Gideon
Gilpin House located on the grounds of Brandywine Battlefield served as General
Lafayettes headquarters after the battle. Gilpin was a Quaker farmer whose home
and farm were damaged during the battle.
This home has been carefully restored combining historical archaeology,
document research, dendrochronology (tree
ring dating) and architectural analysis and can be visited on the grounds of
Brandywine Battlefield Park.

We hope you
have enjoyed this journey to the past of Delaware County and you will continue
to follow us as we travel across the state through our archaeological
past. Please
help us preserve these important resources by reporting and recording your
archaeological finds while we all Preserve our Past for the Future. (link to GIS web site)

References

Becker, Marshall J.

1979. The
Printzhof: Identification of the seventeenth century residence of Swedish
Colonial Governor, Johan Printz. Manuscript on file at The State Museum of
Pennsylvania.

Becker, Marshall J.

1987. A Report
on the 1986 Excavations at the Printzhof Site (36De3): Operation 13. Manuscript
on file at The State Museum of Pennsylvania.

Kelpp, Susan E.

2002. “Encounter and Experiment.” Pennsylvania: A
History of the Commonwealth. Edited by Randall M. Miller and William Pencak. University
Park, Pennsylvania, Penn State Press.

Furlow, David A. and Craig Lukezic

2011. Paper presented at New Netherland Institute's
South River Conference in Newark, Delaware, September 2011.

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One Tank Trip

WFMZ-TV 69 from Reading, Pennsylvania visited The State Museum of Pennsylvania on February 8th, 2017. Karin Mallett prepared a feature piece on great places to visit that are one tank of gas from Reading and our gallery was the focus of this visit. Karin interviewed Kurt Carr, Senior Curator and Janet Johnson in the gallery and provide a nice overview of the spectacular exhibits. Please click on the link below and enjoy this glimpse of the museum during this One Tank Trip!
One Tank Trip: Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology

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